SACRAMENTO — A Bay Point man who was known as one of the most prolific and brutal human traffickers in Contra Costa County’s history was found dead in his Sacramento prison cell, and his cellmate is considered a murder suspect, authorities say.
Deandre Lewis, 37, was found dead in his cell at New Folsom prison Saturday morning, the apparent victim of a homicide at the hands of his cellmate, Shamar Thornton. Authorities have not specified the manner of death.
Lewis was serving a life sentence for human trafficking, torture, and numerous other felonies related to a lengthy sex trafficking case that involved elder fraud, a scalping he ordered over a jail phone, and the death of a woman whom prosecutors contended was forced to commit suicide by Lewis. He contended that he didn’t receive a fair trial, and admitted to being a pimp but adamantly denied forcing any of his victims to do anything against their will.
Lewis’ death was one of two suspected Saturday homicides in the state prison system. A Sacramento County man killed a man convicted out of Colusa County on Saturday in High Desert State Prison, according to a news release from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Thornton was serving a life sentence for murdering a 7-Eleven Clerk during a robbery in San Bernardino County in which Thornton and his accomplice made off with $62, according to media reports.
The prison where Lewis died is under investigation by the FBI for alleged widespread corruption, and corrections officers there have been charged with federal offenses related to a 2016 homicide, according to media reports.
Lewis was sentenced to 180 years to life in 2018, after a trial in which prosecutors played the jury a recording of a phone call where he instructed his “top prostitute” to scalp a woman over an unpaid debt, saying “I wanna hear screaming” and instructing her to confirm it with him after the deed was done. During his trial, it was also revealed that Lewis received grants to attend college, where he wrote essays about the economics of pimping.
On the stand during his trial, Lewis went through his meticulous planning behind running a human trafficking ring, explaining how he would send prostitutes to different regions of the Bay Area depending on what day of the week it was, as he targeted various markets. For instance, he said tech workers typically hired sex workers on the weekend, and blue collar workers were more susceptible on Fridays.
After he was convicted, Lewis granted interviews with reporters, in which he maintained he was being targeted by mind control devices orchestrated by the Contra Costa Sheriff’s office. He also expressed his displeasure with media coverage of his trial, especially by reports that he ordered his victim scalped over a monetary debt.
At Lewis’ sentencing, he compared himself to Nelson Mandela and insisted he was innocent. He also heard from the sister of the woman he ordered scalped, who told the court Lewis deserved to “rot in jail.”
“I hope one day you find it in your heart to acknowledge what you’ve done,” she said.
Source: www.mercurynews.com